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Join me in my daily walk through the joys and struggles of parenthood. Share a word of encouragement or be encouraged. Cry a little, laugh a lot, but know it is all in divine order.

Friday, December 30, 2016

Fun Friday – 3 Proven ways to de-stress during the Holidays - Family Holiday stories


If you were to assign a tag line to your family what would it be? My family tag line would be Invite a little silly into your life.  A couple of episodes led me to this conclusion.

The Family Money
My brother called me to let me know he’d received the photo Christmas card I sent to him. “Hey sis, I got the card you sent me, but when I opened it, nothing fell from the envelope. You know, like a check of a gift card.”

“SURPRISE,” I said. There was nothing of monetary value within the card, just the smiling faces of me and my boys. My brother was hoping I would follow the tradition of our grandmother who would provide us with cash at Holiday time. Nope, Nada, no Ben Franklins here. Silly guy.

Then there is my teen son, who thinks that I should just hand him money whenever he asks. “Ma, I need $20 for gas. I want to go to the school to work out.”

“I want the trash taken out. Ride your bike, it’s only about five miles. It can be a warm-up to your work out.” He didn’t find that amusing. 

Home for the Holidays
My niece is home from college for the Holidays, so her mom and I wanted to get her kids and mine together for an outing. We chose the movies. Our plan was to catch the final matinee time. However, when we arrived, the movie was sold out.

We purchased tickets for the later show time, 8:30pm. This meant that the movie would not actually begin until close to 9pm after the previews. I was distraught (not really, but…), that was too close to my bedtime. I was afraid I would fall asleep during the movie.

We had three hours to fill before the start of the next movie. We decided to grab something to eat in the area. After dinner, I told my boys, “Let’s run in the furniture store. Do you think they will let me take a nap on one of the mattresses?”

I did test a few mattresses for comfort, but I made sure not to close my eyes for too long.

A pet for mom
It wasn’t until recently that I learned that my mom REALLY doesn’t like dogs.  “But, you let us have a dog growing up,” I said.

“Yes, but I wasn’t fond of the idea.”

I didn’t let go of the idea that mom didn’t like dogs. “How about I get you a small puppy to keep you company? One that doesn’t get too big.”

“No, no, no, no no,” was her response.

When mom came to visit for Christmas dinner, I had a surprise waiting for her…a pet pillow. It was a throw pillow with a 3-D face of a dog. The look on my mom’s face when the pulled the pillow from the gift bag was priceless.



All of the above stories have elements of ways you can de-stress during the Holiday season. Here are 3 ways I have had success with de-stressing…

1.      Read something funny
2.      Laugh often
3.      Embrace your journey – don’t rush/wish the days away; find something to be thankful for along your journey, even through difficulties. 

    How do you de-stress during the Holiday season? Do your family members cause you to laugh at their antics?




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